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Bruce Tuncks

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Everything posted by Bruce Tuncks

  1. Bruce Tuncks
    Jackc, be aware of the saga of that lot who tried to start up in opposition to RAAus. I think they were shut down (by just ignoring their correspondence ) by CASA. I sent them some money as a donation. Personally, I don't blame the RAAus. I think of them as like the capos in the prison camps, only a lot better. They have no choice but to dance to their master's tune. It has always been thus, apparently " fear of falling " is the only innate fear among new-borns. This makes sense if you remember we had some important evolution while in the trees. Gosh its a pity that CASA types find it all too easy to manipulate this fear into a bigger and more powerful bureaucracy.
  2. Bruce Tuncks
    Jackc, there was a famous guy ( Steve Whittman ) who died when the fabric came off his homebuilt due to some sort of incompatibility in the system. I think the lesson here is to be careful and maybe do some long-term testing if you are pioneering.
  3. Bruce Tuncks
    The risk of a mid-air IN THE ABSENCE OF CONCENTRATING THINGS is negligible. It will happen on average once in 20,000 years I once calculated. But there are many concentrating things... Airfields, airspace boundaries, computer lines joining busy airports are the main ones. For gliders, you can add good thermals and cloud streets.
  4. Bruce Tuncks
    Hi, most of us here fly under the RAAus, where a driving license medical is all that is needed. When you think of how you miss oncoming cars on the road by a couple of feet at the exact same altitude, surely this is reasonable?
  5. Bruce Tuncks
    Yep Blue, but that would need another measuring device, like a thermocouple, to know just what the temp was. I have been wondering about doing this. And thanks again for the comments RF guy. Please keep them coming.
  6. Bruce Tuncks
    The best trim ever was on my Libelle glider. There was a button on the stick, and this got rid of any back or forward pressure immediately. In use, it became subconscious. No electronics involved at all.
  7. Bruce Tuncks
    I reckon it needs a lot of faith to import a plane. Good onyer mate says I.
  8. Bruce Tuncks
    Yesterday we went to Bendigo from Edenhope and it went just fine. Yes it is a lot faster, 120 knots asi was standard, and that is faster than the 90 knots of my SK. ( nobody wants to buy my sk so far ) .Max CHT's all about 120C which I still think is too good to be true. For some reason I don't understand, it is a bit easier to land too. It maybe the extra inertia? Anyway, I tested the CHT sender ( no 2 ) that I pulled out and put into a candle flame. Well this sure made the sender go into the red fast. Does anybody know a testing substance which changes state at about 200 degrees and 1 atm pressure? ( cheap would be good too). I would like to do this again with the sender dipped into something which was about 200 degrees.
  9. Bruce Tuncks
    Here's how an undercarriage is designed: there is a plane mass and descent speed, which gives a certain kinetic energy which must be absorbed by deformations ( tyres and u/c bits)... !/2MVsquared = av.force times deformation. That is, energy of landing /amount of deformation built in = forces in u/c. There is ( was ) no requirement for damping in JAR22 or whatever it is called these days, but Nev is correct to say that damping makes an easier plane to land. Shock absorbers do the damping in a road car. The Jabiru, for one, has no real built-in damping. The flexing of the legs and the squashing of the tyres provide the deformation needed. Jabirus were tested by loading them up to max weight with bags of stuff and then dropping them a metre onto a greased floor.Then the height of the plane was re-measured to see if there was any change. If the plane had failed this test, Rod Stiff would have lost his house.
  10. Bruce Tuncks
    I'm sorry you don't like Jabirus Skippy. I just advertised my old one for sale. I tried to state a price of $20,900 but the software would not accept this.... maybe the software thought it was too cheap. Anybody able to suggest how to get the price on the advert?
  11. Bruce Tuncks
    There was a coronial case which had a potentially terrible effect on gliding some years ago. A glider pilot died following a cable-break. The coroner, probably with an understanding of crane-cables, mandated heavy stranded cable for all gliding launches in future. This would have ended the operations of most winch-launch clubs in Australia, to no good safety end. My last wire launches ( autotow ) at Gawler were wire ones, and the very last had 3 cable-breaks. There is no danger if you adhere to safe speed near the ground rules. I know about this case from being levied to pay for the appeal, which thankfully arrived at the correct ruling of pilot error.
  12. Bruce Tuncks
    The weight savings convince me. At the same efficiency, there is a big win for our type of plane with a 4kg weight saving. If you also changed to a LiFe battery and the e-prop landing gear, you may be able to save 15kg total. Wow, that would transform many planes. Bugger it, I need to lose weight too.
  13. Bruce Tuncks
    Thanks for that... gosh that coroner was bad huh. I tell people to stay away from litigation if you possibly can, because you may get a stupid judge. But he had no way of avoiding it I know.
  14. Bruce Tuncks
    That's really sad KRviator. It sounds like he didn't have a lawyer representing him, is that correct?
  15. Bruce Tuncks

    Hi please help I need to advertise my SK Jabiru but the software won't let me.

  16. Bruce Tuncks
    Wonderful news guys. I like it that paints have been so improved that my experience has been rendered obsolete... great says I.
  17. Bruce Tuncks
    The 2 pack has that "wet look " which i guess means more glossy. It is also a tougher coating, so it is less likely to show a scratch. If you use 2 pack, you need an independent air supply for your special mask as well as other stuff. If you have a friendly mate with a spray-bake booth then use that. Most new Jabirus would be done in 2 pack these days. Once, I did a glider in single-pack and it was a mistake, the paint job was not tough or durable enough. But I think that painting the kit-built Jabiru in single-pack was the right thing to do.
  18. Bruce Tuncks
    I reckon the single pack acrylic is best for an amateur, and certainly easier to apply nicely. Cars were done in this stuff till recently and they looked ok. The main thing is to put up lights so you see reflections in the wet paint and this helps you to put it in evenly. And practice your technique with the spray gun. In my case, I had actually put up a plastic tent to spray 2 pack before deciding it was all too difficult... the 2 pack stays wet longer than the acrylic, which dries almost immediately. And you can touch up over acrylic any time. See the Jabiru in my little picture? That was done with acrylic, with stick-on numbers cut from plastic sheet from Bunnings. A consideration would be if the aircraft will be hangared or not... if not, I would recommend 2 pack with a UV rating.
  19. Bruce Tuncks
    The 2 pack stuff does look better though I have to admit.
  20. Bruce Tuncks
    I reckon on a small Jabiru, there was said to be an extra 5kg if you used 2 pack paint instead of single-pack acrylic. This made me decide to use the single pack stuff, and it still looks ok after many years. It also doesn't kill you so fast if you breathe in fumes while painting.
  21. Bruce Tuncks
    For about 4 years now Danny. I did ruin a LiFe by leaving to master on while parked for a week. The cells gassed and the battery burst open. The terminal voltage was zero and it would not take a charge. So 2 years from an individual battery is my best. I hope the current one lasts longer though than the 2 years so far. Those LiFe batteries are more fragile in some ways , you need to keep the terminal voltage between certain limits, more than the lead acid types. ( the old Odyssey was left to go to zero volts too, but it came good again on charging and served for another 4 years on a farm buggy) But as you say, the weight saving with the LiFe batteries is great. I am surprised that anybody who understands about weight and aircraft has not changed away from lead-acid.
  22. Bruce Tuncks
    Historically, have not many RAAus board positions been held by flying school owners or employees?
  23. Bruce Tuncks
    Ian, the great value of this site is the debating and the technical questions answered. I would be happy with the cheapest software which achieved that, and I didn't notice much if any changes last time. Thanks for the best site on the net.
  24. Bruce Tuncks
    You sure described what I saw Nev. There was some primitive governor which consisted of a flap which closed the air off when centrifugal force exceeded a spring force. I would have thought that this would have worked regardless of what the fuel was, but it didn't.
  25. Bruce Tuncks
    Sorry you have drawn a blank there jetjr. And I have owned a J230 for 2 days and can't help, in fact I don't know how the system works at all. Do you need to worry about one wing tank going dry and air being sucked into the engine instead of fuel, while there is still fuel in the other wing tank? Maybe when I understand the setup, I will be able to make a helpful comment on your problem, but my guess is that you have solved it yourself in the last 7 years.
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